What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (5 Viewers)

[MDR]

I've read and enjoyed Chronicle of a Death Fortold by Gabrial Garcia marquez, so maybe I just prefer him in shorter books. The other two books lacked the plot I would expect from 400+ page books. I won't give up on him yet though - thanks for the various suggestions.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

i attempted to read in the autumn of the patriarch but didnt get too far into it, the six page long sentances were too difficult to read in a flat over-filled with summer abroad students. i really liked 100 years of solitude, chronicle of a death. news of a kidnapping was a good read too - that journalistic one about some people kidnapped by pablo escobar's gang

 

[Unicron]

Started reading "Perfect From Now On" last night. Had I been born a decade earlier in Grand Rapids it could be my autobiography. That's kinda upsetting.

 

[Grenouille]

I've just started Slash's book this evening too. Really into it already but can't wait for the sex/drugs n rock n roll bits!

That was the last book I read. pretty good. Heavily embellished I'd say.

At one point he says he was touring with Ron Wood and they were joined by The Coors. I think he meant The Corrs

 

[carbide]

this is a really nice exploration of scent and perfume, without being a history or getting too hung up on the commercial side. it assumes a certain level of knowledge - or at least quickly begins explaining at one - of both chemistry (maybe it doesn't matter if you get what a double bond is or can tell why one molecule is different to the one beside it, but it would make an interesting bit a skipped bit) and scent both as the sense and in terms of vocabulary. i've kind of gotten to know my sense of smell for the first time lately and it's visceral and ugly and gorgeous and unreserved.

(as an aside, if anyone has any great popular science to recommend - especially maths of the number theory or probability variety, chemistry and smell, or behavioural experiments sort of stuff - PMez-moi please? i am eating it up and not sure where to go next.)

 

[cephalopod]

this is a really nice exploration of scent and perfume, without being a history or getting too hung up on the commercial side. it assumes a certain level of knowledge - or at least quickly begins explaining at one - of both chemistry (maybe it doesn't matter if you get what a double bond is or can tell why one molecule is different to the one beside it, but it would make an interesting bit a skipped bit) and scent both as the sense and in terms of vocabulary. i've kind of gotten to know my sense of smell for the first time lately and it's visceral and ugly and gorgeous and unreserved.

(as an aside, if anyone has any great popular science to recommend - especially maths of the number theory or probability variety, chemistry and smell, or behavioural experiments sort of stuff - PMez-moi please? i am eating it up and not sure where to go next.)

Fermat's enigma

The book of nothing

These are both highly readable books dealing with number theory and like shit that's all mathematical!

 

[david jatt]

finished "call for the dead" by john le carre and mid way through "the quiet american" by graham greene. both highly recommended.

 

[cephalopod]

I'm starting the Heart of the Matter by Greene tonight. Looking forward!! Then it's the Beckett trilogy, Murphy, Malone Dies and The Unnameable for my January stateside holidays!

 

[paula]

I'm starting the Heart of the Matter by Greene tonight. Looking forward!!

i just handed in a final year essay on the heart of the matter two hours ago so i don't feel so good about it. i didn't really like it first time i read it, then i did some background reading and my feelings changed but i still couldn't really tell if i liked it or not. let me know what you think, i'd be curious to see what someone reading for enjoyment makes of it!

everything i read these days is for college, but i've enjoyed a few of the novels, particularly bowen's the death of the heart and jennifer johnston's the railway station man. currently reading the french lieutenant's woman which seems good so far.

 

[coast to coast]

Started reading "Perfect From Now On" last night. Had I been born a decade earlier in Grand Rapids it could be my autobiography. That's kinda upsetting.

Is that about Built to Spill or just Built to Spill referencing?

 

[Unicron]

Is that about Built to Spill or just Built to Spill referencing?

Built To Spill referencing. It's basically some guy telling the story of his life as a music geek and all the stupid shit that it made him do thoughout his life. Strangely as the subtitle of the book is "How indie rock saved my life" he's spent most of the first hundred or so pages talking about being into hair metal, hard rock and new wave in his teens.

 

[cephalopod]

Dutch gabba saved my life..

 

[skinnerchinner]

the magna farta
the new edition of the profanisaurus
shockingly beautiful poetic organismic and terrifyingly calm all at once

 

[magicbastarder]

am taking a hiatus from godel, escher, bach, and have started the stuff of thought by steven pinker.

 

[Unicron]

Built To Spill referencing. It's basically some guy telling the story of his life as a music geek and all the stupid shit that it made him do thoughout his life. Strangely as the subtitle of the book is "How indie rock saved my life" he's spent most of the first hundred or so pages talking about being into hair metal, hard rock and new wave in his teens.

The final hundred or so pages about about his love for Joy Division and also includes an open letter to Kevin Shields but mainly they're about his all encompassing and borderline obsessional devotion to Guided By Voices.

Enjoyed it.

 

[theoootini]

currently reading this:

it's out of this world.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

currently reading this:

it's out of this world.

are you a brian aldiss fan?

 

[BC]

over the last few days:

peter sotos : index. read this for a second time, the first of a trilogy, and i think the preceeding books - "lazy" and "tick" - are superior. however this does have its moments. as always, the subject matter can be hard to take and the use of language is both elegant and brutal. the usual concerns are present - the portrayal of sexual crimes in media, anonymous gay sex encounters, analysis of pornography and the implications of AIDS - and are delivered in the usual misanthropic manner (virtually every conceivable derogratory term imaginable is used), with a particular focus on pornographic films featuring "gang bangs" and pregnant woman. interview extracts of kathleen hanna (bikini kill) are also discussed. good, but not his best ("selfish little" and "tick" remain his masterpieces).

friedrich nietzsche : twilight of the idols and the anti christ. the latter is the high point, fairly agreeable and still resonant.

hermann hesse : siddhartha. excellent, beautifully written and clear-eyed. interestingly moves on from the work of nietzsche. unlike many such books marketed as such, this genuinely contains a wisdom and sticks with the reader. highly recommended.

started today:

norman mailer : the executioners song. somewhat intimidating page count, but excellent and quite enthralling so far.

 

[travispickle]

Currently reading:
Words and Music - Paul Morley and
In between the Sheets - Ian McEwan

 

[Super Dexta]

cormac mccarthy - the road.

man and his son walk down a road. is all postapocalyptic n shit liek 28 weeks later. the end.